Pertient
by Opartent
Summary: What if instead of Rose, The Titanic story was told through the view of another 1st class teenager, Nathan Edmond?


Southampton England, April 10th, 1912

A young boy no older than 16, tall with pale white skin like the rest of his family, was calmly walking across the pier, and he enters the docking area and the platform elevates up as he walks into the B Deck entrance of a large ship. The camera pans out and the ship is revealed to be the RMS Titanic, and passengers from 3rd-1st class are boarding. His family follows behind him, consisting of a little boy and two adults. The little boy is short, looks to be 4 years old and has very chubby cheeks, he smiles gleefully and bounces about, aided by his mother's hand, a tall around 5'1 woman. The father is taller, coming around 5'3, but the older son dwarfs them, coming in at about 5'7. They set down their bags after going to their stateroom in first class, A54, and they start to talk to each other about being on such a grand ship.

The young brother first speaks: "Mama, the ship is so big!" He spoke in a English accent.

"Yes dear, now we must get ready to take a look around and interact with others." The mother's English accented voice rings around the room aswell.

The older brother says nothing, as he is peering out the window observing the dock.

The father is also quiet, as he is unpacking their things.

After 30 minutes, the ship leaves the Southampton Port and sails to Cherbourg, France, where the SS Nomadic boards some other passengers.

April 11th 1912 Cherbourg France

Just before they leave, a French passenger boards and asks a man in confusion:

"Excusez-moi Monsieur, je ne peux pas trouver ma chambre, je suis censé arriver à la chambre A78, je suis confus où aller."

The man ignores her and walks on muttering about filthy French people.

The older brother turns to her, and speaks to her in fluent French:

"Vous trouverez A78 dans le couloir et vers la droite, puis tournez à gauche et continuez tout droit tournez à droite."

The lady turns to him, nods gratefully and takes his directions and the brother turns away again.

This action has brought the attention to one of the crew members aboard, so he asks the boy to help guide some of the non-english speaking occupants that recently came in to their rooms.

He does so, and the officer slips a 20 pound note into his shirt pocket.

The boy looks at the officer, before nodding in appreciation and walking away.

He returns to his family and they continue walking until they reach their rooms and fall asleep.

April 12th 1912: The boy's sharp blue eyes like that of a frozen iceberg floating amidst the sea reflects the fine polished wood of the staircase, down to the cherub with the light fixture in its hands adorning the center pedestal.

As he looks at the clock, a group of people walk in, a tall but shorter than him man, in a suit akin to his, and two red-headed women, one clearly middle-aged and the other a young barely 17 year old teenaged girl, which caught his attention as he gazed upon her shining red hear and her emerald like green eyes. He turns his attention as the ship's builder Mr Thomas Andrews, arrives and greets the other group, they exchange pleasantries, after which Andrews comes up to the boy's family, and greets them.

The boy, tunes out the conversation until his name is mentioned

"Nathan Edmond, pleasure to meet you!" Thomas' excited voice rings into his airs as they sake hands

"The pleasure is mine Mr Andrews, what a lovely ship this is." Nathan's crisp deep voice is projected and Thomas smiles.

Thomas turns to his other family members greeting them and he then leaves, but before he does, he slips a note into Nathan's pocket which reads.

"You seem interested with the ship, I saw the way you inspected the Grand Staircase, I invite you to a special dinner you can come to by yourself. It is tomorrow at noon."

Thomas Andrews

Nathan reads the note, then he informs his parents of the invitation Mr Andrews gave him and they nod and walk around to the boat deck.

They then notice the lifeboats, and Nathan nods approvingly, even for the Titanic, not even she was unsinkable.

Nathan quietly counts the lifeboat seats and the amounts of lifeboats to himself, muttering then mumbling about how much they could hold in the event of a disaster, when someone behind him scoffs.

He turns around to be greeted by the Middle-Aged woman and the Teenage girl and he remains quiet until the Middle aged woman introduces herself:

"My name is Ruth Bukater, and this is my daughter Rose, I've heard you mumbling about the lifeboats, you need not worry about such trivialities, this ship is unsinkable." Ruth smiles at him and he speaks again

"Pleasure to meet you Madam, but I have been wary of the comments on this ship being un-sinkable, the hull is held together by iron rivets and what is to happen when something causes a huge tear into the keel?"

"Preposterous, no such event will ever happen!" Ruth waves him off before walking away with Rose, who turns to look at Nathan, then she notices he is already gone, sitting on a bench near the 1st class limit with his family.

Nathan looks up as the crew member who asked him to assist the French passengers walked up to him and asks

"You seem bored son, why don't I show you around the bridge, You might be able to meet the Captain."

Nathan excuses himself and follows the crew member, his little brother running behind him and they both follow the crew member, he doesn't mind and strikes up a conversation:

"We really appreciate what you did to help us back there in Cherbourg, My name's William Murdoch."

"Nathan Edmond sir, I don't think much of my actions in Cherbourg, I am only helping out another human being."

Murdoch chuckles and they reach the bridge as Nathan's little brother goes ooh in awe at the helm and the big telegraphs.

Murdoch explains what they do and after his explanation the Captain walks out, and he warmly shakes Nathan by the hand and occupies himself to answer Nathan's younger brother's questions when his name is revealed to be Daniel, and he asks him a lot of questions about the ship and they leave to go back to their parents and the captain gives him an official letter of invitation to the dinner Thomas previously invited him to. Nathan quietly walks down to the stern and he notices the teenage girl from earlier leaning over the railings of the stern with a look of depression in her eyes.

A third class young man strikes up a conversation with her, and Rose's grips on the rail slowly loosens. Just as she slips and almost falls, Nathan catches her and sets her down on the deck, but her screams alert the crew, who rush down and notice Nathan standing next to Rose with her, the Quarter Master immediately slaps handcuffs on Nathan as Rose's fiance Caledon Hockley arrives, and Rose speaks up:

"He saved me from slipping, I was leaning over to look at the propellers and my grip loosened on the railing." Rose's panicked voice echoed across the deck.

Rose turns to look at Nathan pleadingly, who nods to the quarter master and crew members as a non verbal answer to confirm what happened.

Nathan is released from the handcuffs and he walks away.

Rose asks for a few minutes to sit down and catch her breath and she'll come to Cal after she's done.

Cal and the crew members leave, and she blushes as she thinks about how it felt to be in her savior's arms.

April 13th 1912 7:00AM

Nathan wakes up after falling to sleep the night before, the events still fresh in his mind, and he greets his family, he eats, dresses and walks onto the outer deck.

He usually wakes up before the rest of his family so he has plenty time to explore. He uses this time to look over the safety features of the ship. "16 wooden lifeboats, 4 of which are collapsible.. My god! these are barely enough for a third of the ship in the case of disaster!" Thankfully no one hears him, and as he turns around to go back up to his room, he is pulled into one of the staterooms..

He looks at the person who pulled him into the room, to realize it was..

Rose!

Rose looks at him and then asks him

"While I appreciate what you did for me last night, I'd like to know why and what you were doing there." in a soft voice

Nathan is momentarily shocked at how angelic it sounds before he answers

"What good would my conscience have done me if I let a lady drown, knowing I had the ability to save her? I was at the stern to take some fresh air, as it does get boring here."

Rose is shocked as she expected him to say he wanted to get personal gain out of it, and she says she has something for him

"Cal would have arrested you himself on the spot if he hadn't known you saved me, I want to thank you for it," Rose finishes her sentence and pecks him on the cheek, causing Nathan to blush before he leaves quickly hearing footsteps.

Nathan walks down to the stern, in the third class area, he leans over the port when he is turned around by a tall Irish man.

"What on earth ye doing here boyo? ain't this place your dog's shitter?" the mans Irish accent rung into Nathan's ear.

"No sir, I just came for fresh air." Nathan stammered, shocked at the behavior of the other first class passengers.

Nathan continues: "I find it funny and ironic how Third Class seems more lively and exciting than the supposedly 'exclusive' first class."

The Irish man chuckles and shakes Nathan's hand, revealing his name to be Tommy Ryan. Nathan leaves the deck and waits till the dinner is supposed to be held.

April 13th 1912 7:00PM

Nathan realizes it's time for him to go to the dinner, so he dresses and goes down to the dining room in D-Deck and he finds Thomas Andrews seated already, along with another man who he recognizes as Mr Bruce Ismay, the chairman of the company that owned the Titanic.

Nathan awkwardly realizes he is also very early so he sits down and Mr Ismay strikes up a conversation with him.

"Ah how you do Son?"

"Fine sir."

"You are enjoying your time here so far on this ship eh?"

"Very much sir."

"You look like something's bothering you, tell me what's on your mind."

"It's the number of lifeboats sir." Nathan stated bluntly.

Thomas almost choked on his drink, not expecting anyone except himself to realize that mistake before it was too late.

Mr Ismay said in a puzzled tone:

"What do you mean by that?"

"I did some rough calculations in my head, the lifeboats on this ship are barely enough for a third of the entire ship's current population."

"Well it was not like we'd need them, this ship can't sink!"

Nathan is immediately put off by Bruce's attitude but says nothing as the other invitees arrive to the dinner. He greets them all, and they start the dinner.

Over the meal, Ismay starts up the conversation again:

"Are you all enjoying your time here on the ship?" his voice rings across the table

The group nods, then more people begin to join in.

Nathan quietly talks to Mr Andrews as Thomas shows him some of the deck plans.

Nathan says to Mr Andrews:

"What happens when here to here gets ripped open if it hits something?" His finger points to an area between the 1st-5th watertight compartment of the bow's keel

Mr Andrews turns to him and says:

"I honestly do not know, but as long as the water does not get past the 4th compartment and over the e deck bulkheads we should be fine."

Nathan nods and turns back to the table and notices the other guests there, Noel Elise, the Countess of Rothes, John Jacob Astor IV, Rose and Ruth, aswell as Caledon and a woman he does not recognize.

He and Thomas continue their discussion on the deck plans, as Bruce and the rest of the group tunes in to listen to the conversation.

Nathan speaks again:

"I have a theory of what might happen if more than 4 compartments flood."

This piques the interest of the group and they tune in more interestingly as Nathan spends the next 5 minutes explaining what might happen unaware the others were listening.

Thomas looks in shock as Nathan points out things not even he himself realized could happen.

Nathan turns back to the group and he realizes they were listening to the conversation the entire time.

He stammers before quieting down and starts to eat the meal which he hadn't touched for the entire time.

Ismay ponders what the boy said, and he realizes the mistake he made, but it was too late to change that.

After that, the Captain comes and sits down. Thomas explains to Edward what Nathan said, and Edward blinks in shock, looks to Nathan then continues on.

The topic changes and Ismay talks about the size of the ship and how grand it was.

"Mr Ismay, I have a suggestion that may interest you to read the Freud Theory on the male pre-occupation with size." Rose said out loud.

Mr Andrews and Nathan choked on their drinks when they heard that, as Rose looked at them before she turns to see her mother look dis-approvingly at her.

The rest of the group looks confused and looks at Nathan and Thomas, who are snickering in the background.

They compose themselves before Nathan explains:

"What Rose said was an Innuendo to say Mr Ismay wanted the Titanic to be such a large ship was his way of compensating for another package."

The group slowly start to realize what Rose means and they all turn to her.

The dinner continues on then they all leave, and after Nathan is walking down the decks, he hears Cal shout at Rose for what she did at the dinner, before he hears the table flip and objects break.

Worried, he realizes he cannot do anything about it and walks down the deck and comes back five minutes later and he is pulled in again, this time through a crew only door...

To be continued..


End file.
